PICTURES of ORANGE COUNTY (campus, building, race)

[skilaketahoe]

I'm glad I found this. Thanks for the pics.

All I knew about OC was from a tv show. No one 'down under' knew if OC was a job title, like school janitor.

[Fontucky]

missionhome, what is that trampoline/radar dish looking monstrosity on the roof of the Kaleidoscope building? I've driven past it a million times, but have never ventured inside.

[missionhome]

Originally Posted by Fontucky

missionhome, what is that trampoline/radar dish looking monstrosity on the roof of the Kaleidoscope building? I've driven past it a million times, but have never ventured inside.

The trampoline thing is the "Kaleidoscope" for which the center is named. At night they shoot a bunch of colored lights up against the tarp and they consider it a "Kaleidoscope" effect. It is totally pointless other than design and looks odd during daylight hours. It is over part of the Plaza Level.

[Fontucky]

Looking North from what is now the Beach Cities offramp curve of I-5, early sixties. The 3 lanes of roadway are both directions of I-5 in the middle and on the right, and old Hwy 101, now Camino Capistrano, on the left. Note that both side of I-5 were only two lanes wide back then. Also note the room for expansion in the original grading of the right-of-way. They'd certainly need all that space plus some in the coming years.

The hilltop residence and the groves surrounding it are now where all the auto dealers are. The old Capistrano Airport (grass landing strip) can barely be seen
trending from the middle of the pic towards the left, directly under the white concrete strip of the San Juan Creek flood control channel.

[missionhome]

Very neat photo Fontucky! Its so wierd to see what a place looked like before it was covered in development.

[missionhome]

I thought I would bring my camera on one of the trails I like to do my morning jog because it has some pretty views. The pics are from two days, one was a few days ago when it was sunny and the others are from this morning, with clouds building up for the rain that is coming tonight.

Part of the trail, located at the top of one of Mission Viejo's largest hills between the Madrid del Lago and Barcelona neighborhoods.


View from the top of the trail at a look out point. From here you can look out over much of the Southern California basin. On a very clear day you can even see all the way to the skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles and the Santa Monica Mountains faintly in the distance. The closer office towers in this pic are in the Irvine Spectrum area and the farther ones are the office buildings of the Irvine Business District near John Wayne Airport.


From this angle you look out over the city of Lake Forest and you can see the former El Toro Marine Base where a giant Orange Balloon is on the ground. The Orange Balloon is the first part of the Great Park (which I'm betting never gets finished in my lifetime) and I think costs a few dollars to ride. We first moved to South Orange County when my husband was stationed as a Marine pilot at El Toro in the 80's after we had been living in Texas, Florida, and Arizona (he is not longer in the Marines). Farther in the distance, the historic blimp hangars of the former Tustin Marine Corps Air Station rise above the flat terrain. Tustin is redeveloping the site.


This angle looks across the Saddleback Valley towards the opposing hills where the city of Aliso Viejo is. The large hill to the left is the back end of Laguna Beach where "Top of the World" is. On the other side is the ocean and Laguna.


This photo looks down towards Lake Forest, passing over northwest Mission Viejo. The taller building in the center is the Washington Mutual bank, marking the location of the El Toro Road and Interstate 5 interchange. The El Toro business area, Lake Forest's main shopping area surrounds that bank. Aliso Viejo and the senior citizen city of Laguna Woods is on the hills in the background.


This photo looks south, down into the Capistrano Valley with the ocean at Dana Point visible between the two hills. The city of Laguna Niguel is located on top of the hill located on the far right of the photo.


These two photos look down into the Barcelona neighborhood on one side of this hill. It is a nice clean neighborhood of starter homes, heavily located in the trees as you can see. This neighborhood is located to the northeast of the Alicia and Trabuco intersection. It is served by the Capistrano Unified School District's Barcelona Hills Elementary (API 860), Newhart Middle (API 840), and Capistrano Valley High (API 812).



Looking down into Madrid del Lago neighborhood from the jogging trail. Attends same schools as Barcelona neighborhood mentioned above. Homes are larger and slightly higher up the hill.



View looking over Madrid del Lago, with a sliver of Lake Mission Viejo visible between the homes at the bottom of the hill.



More trail pics


The neighborhood shown is to the northeast of the Los Alisos/Trabuco intersection along the Wilderness Glen Park. It is in the Saddleback Valley Unified School District attending Glen Yermo Elementary (API 792, one of MV's lowest performing schools), Los Alisos Intermediate (API 804), and Trabuco Hills High (API 823).


This photo looks back towards the large Foothill Ranch community, now a part of the city of Lake Forest.


More trail pics


The trail goes through Minya Park


Minya neighborhood, adjacent to the park and at the bottom of the hill below Madrid del Lago. Smaller homes, mix of Spanish and Tudor style, attends same schools as Barcelona and Madrid del Lago nieghborhoods.

[socal4life]

Missionhome, thanks for this pic, put in alot of hours in that building sure brings back memories.

[iLOVEfoothillranch!!!!]

cute picture!<333

[Andrejoan]

Hey beautiful pictures

[jxndean]

I would love to live in California. Great pictures!